Empowering the EBA Community with a voice to collaboratively review the industry’s hottest titles, the EpicBattleAxe.com uREVIEW (about) delivers real insight from real gamers about The GOOD, The BAD, and The UGLY pertaining to the biggest games in the world. This is the EpicBattleAxe.com uREVIEW for Alpha Protocol. Let’s get started:
FACTS:
Publisher: SEGA Developer: Obsidian
Genre(s): Action, Role-Playing
Players: 4
ESRB Rating: M (Mature)
Release Date: June 1, 2010
Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3. PC
Official Website
GAME SUMMARY:
Alpha Protocol is an espionage role-playing game set in the modern world. Loyalty carries a price and no one knows this more than agent Michael Thorton. A talented young agent cast out by his government, Thorton is the only one with the information needed to stop an impending international catastrophe. To do so means he must cut himself off from the very people he is sworn to protect. As players determine how to accomplish different objectives, the decisions made and actions taken in each mission will ultimately transform the type of secret agent Michael Thorton will become. Every choice the player makes as Michael Thorton will carry consequences for his future and the fate of the world. [Sega]
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THE GOOD: The skill-system is great, you can really feel the benefits of investing in them. Weapon-customization is also quite nice. Acting is above average for the most part. Some of the characters look great. And finally, the plot, even with its double/triple-agents is understandable and enjoyable. (unlike for example MW2s plot…)
THE BAD: Some of the characters look sub-par. The graphics are below average with glitches along the way. The combat mechanics, while allowing for a great variety of tactics is clunky, but no more than ME1, Fallout3 and the like.
THE UGLY: While being an enjoyable game if viewed as a role-playing instead of a shooter, the good acting and plot can’t in my opinion justify buying this game because of the lack of polish across the board. Its relative shortness (as an RPG) means that it can be rented and if liked, played trough multiple times without a need for months of free time.
THE GOOD: It has the most gripping story I have seen in a while. I actually followed the storyline without blanking out, which I do in most other games. Also the dialogue options initially don’t really seem all that great, but once you get into the game it’s very refreshing, they’re not at all like Mass Effect (a game I love) where you can skip through everything and just keep the dial on the upper right corner. Here you have to actually think about who you’re talking to and what he likes. I liked the branching storyline, that is the option to execute or spare people and what effect that makes on the future events. Also it’s great that when you’re presented with an option between two choices there are actual consequences, in most games you just have to pick the noble one and the other one magically resolves itself. And the hacking and cracking minigames aren’t that bad, they’re a nice distraction.
THE BAD: The biggest concern I have with this game is the combat, which is dull, broken and it makes me sad that during the delay of the game they went into a more action oriented style. I would have loved to have seen the more RPG focused version of the game. The skill system in the game is pretty much pointless, the enemies and even the bosses are rarely hard enough to warrant the use of a skill, therefore most of the time I forgot I even had the option of using them. Also the stealth skills are overpowered once you get them maxed out, but that doesn’t matter to me since I mainly only used my weapons. The pistol, smg and shotgun are useless for most of the time. The assault rifle is nicely balanced for all possible uses, in fact after the first missions it’s the only weapon I used. The world itself while you’re on the missions is way too limited, however you kind of forget about that, because you have no minimap and don’t know where the hell you’re going which doesn’t matter because you can’t get lost. Also the final boss is underwhelming.
THE UGLY: Too many game glitches and bugs which enable you to easily dispense of your enemies, even a few of the bosses. On the PC version the clearinghouse takes forever to load every time you go up or down an item or even when you buy one. And I’m not overreacting, it can be up to 10 – 15 secs, this may be partly my PCs fault, but I can easily run the game on medium so I dread to think what happens for those who have to run it on low. I would say try the game first definitely, but if you really like the story part in games I think you’ll like this game and overlook the bad combat system.
So before I start off, I haven’t finished the game and only played for 4 hours or so. I played AP on the PC.
The good:
must say they nailed the whole spy or James Bond vibe. You can clearly see they spend a lot of time watching every “charming/witty” spy out there, which is a good thing. As far as the story goes (as far as I played it), it’s OK. As you play along you do get little reminders in your hideouts of the “adventures” you did, which is kind of fun. The voice acting is good and so are the dialogues. The character interaction choices do impact the story and even award various “perks” (which increase your skills).
The bad:
The graphics are a tat outdated and sluggish, but for people who don’t mind, it shouldn’t be a problem. IMO it’s playable in terms of graphics. There’s also a few animation glitches here and there. The speed of the character interaction choices can be annoying cause I want to think about my choices and not just pick something within a few seconds. Last but not least, the stealth part of the game is lacking and could be more fleshed out (for example hiding bodies).
The ugly:
Where this game really falls short is the implementation of the RPG system. I feel it doesn’t do much for you (except for a few obvious things like hacking). The mini-games are either too horrible for words or too easy.
TLDR: Good story and vibe, bad implementation of RPG and bad gameplay in general.
End verdict: Rent it if you’re a fan of spy movies and such. Pass if you aren’t.
The Good: Story, Conversation System, Character Customization(RPG) elements
The Bad: Combat fails sometimes, Cover system, shooting
The Ugly: Some graphic issues, all those technical issues
Final Say: Great RPG, Great Story, Great Characters, If you want another RPG that is new, not old, then buy this game. Other wise try it out. I like it.
The Good: Story has been pretty cool so far, I really like the characters and the conversation system (which in my opinion is way better than mass effects!).
The Bad: The animations of the enemies sometimes are a little jittery (not often enough to be a problem though) and texture pop-up (could bother some but me, not too much)
The Ugly: The crouch animation lol nuff said, but I can look past it.
Final Say: I havent completed it yet but I have played a big chunk of the game and already I love it! Don’t listen to the reviews for god’s sake! I nearly didnt buy it because of them! just confirms my belief that review scores don’t mean shi*guitar noise*! I’m quite surprised that my fellow axe heads out there don’t feel the same way as me! come on guys give this game some lovin’!
You should try this game out DK, I think you’ll like it!
The Good: The story actually made me want to play all the way through the game. I actually sat through the whole game just thinking “What if Splinter Cell Conviction had this story?” (ye I was dissapointed with Convcitions story).
I really like the way u have to live with the consequenses. Several times I made choice’s that didn’t turn out the way I wanted.
The Bad: Graphcis looks last gen, and the enviorment just looks stiff.
The Ugly: Where do I start? The gameplay makes absolutly no sense. The game presents itself as a 3rd person shooter. In reality it’s the shooting from Fallout 3, mixed with the low level Shepard in ME1 and it almost feel like a turnbased JRPG at times. Let’s call it a 3rd Person RT TBS (Real time Turn based shooter).
The pistol is completly worthless beside the splinter cell/red dead mark and execute perk.
The A.I. is extremly varied and that makes stealth less about ur skill as a player and rather if the A.I. feels like seeing u or not.
The gameplay just don’t feel rewarding.
Final Comment: I think Obsidian has made a great effort, but Alpha Protocol clearly show their biggest weakness. They are great at making story and get everything to work. But making the gameplay themselves isn’t their strong suit. If they had just copied the gameplay from ME1 or ME2 the game could have been a sleeper hit.
From my own review scale I hope eventually will get used instead of point score.
Incredible!
Great
Good
Decent
Bad
Ugly
Because of the story I will give it: Decent
The Good: It kind of reminds me of Mass Effect?
The Bad: Almost everything about the game minus a few decent tid bits such as a decent plot, pretty good voice acting and I suppose the skill system
The Ugly: Really poor game quality & I am really disappointed considering how long it took them to make this title it really feels rushed & unpolished. If you think you would like a new spy type twist on an RPG title and you like Mass Effect you may want to give this a rent.. and I would only suggest that if you are REALLY bored & can’t think of any other game to play xD. Other than that.. this title is a HUGE pass up.. really disappointing Obsidian.. Don’t know what happened whether most of the team left & they got a bunch of new people? or the team is just tired of what they’re doing? >_> whatever it is.. sadly don’t be surprised if we see the end of Obsidian if they don’t have a new title in the makes.
SCORE:
4/10 (mediocre at best)
The Good: Great acting, great voice work and a well written story. You choices and how you interact with characters have big impacts later on. making it both engaging and replayable
The bad: the computer hacking! its not too hard but sometimes as if by random it will make your reset/coutdown time move at double pace, meaning you fail and all that hard work of stealthing it up is wasted.
The ugly: Combat system lacks polish, some skills are overpowered (you can line up perfect headshots from behind cover with the pistol and shadow operative lets you become invisible, like seriously i stabbed a guy in the neck right infront of another and he acted like he saw nothing) and more varied character costumization would be nice.
6.5/10
ps plays more like Deus Ex then Mass effect
The Good: The character customisation was pretty cool, as was the weapon customisation. I liked how there’s different approaches to handling missions. The conversation system was also a nice touch. My favourite part was actually the mini-games, similar to those in Fallout 3 for unlocking things or hacking computers – Alpha Protocol’s minigames were really damn good, far better than those in Fallout 3. The melee combat also felt pretty cool. The best part of this game though, was the start-up credits, hearing that genuine old-school Megadrive SEEEEEGAAAAA put a smile on my face from ear to ear.
The Bad: This game screen tears like a bitch, seriously, spin the camera around Thorton and you can almost see a 360 panoramic view, it ain’t good. The character models are passable but not fantastic.
The Ugly: So far you may be thinking that this doesn’t sound so bad, but this is where everything changes. This game fails on the most fundamental level: shooting. The shooting mechanic is SO bad that I turned the game off and sent it straight back to the rental place. You can stand two metres away from an enemy, shooting at him with a handgun, and for every 12 bullets you shoot you’ll be lucky to hit him twice. Now I’m sorry, but I thought I was playing as a super agent? I thought I was using a handgun – a generally accurate weapon? Then throw in increased distances from targets and shotguns/assault rifles – it was impossible to shoot anyone. I spent all of my ammo firing and hitting nothing. Maybe this problem is reduced as your skill with weapons levels up, I don’t know because at least initially – it was too bad to play.
It’s a shame because this game shows so much potential, but for the shooting issue alone I’d say it’s not worth bothering with.
I dont have played the game, Im not going to make a Ureview, but I just want too chime in real quick. Remember guys and galls, this is a RPG, NOT a shooter…
Just sayin’
I am fascinated by how mixed the reactions are for this game ? both from the critical press and the users. I am so tempted out of curiosity to buy the game and see what my own reaction is
Nice Blog